BOK Governor Rated as Top Central Banker
By Kim Jae-kyoung
Staff Reporter
Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Lee Seong-tae was chosen as one of the world's top central bankers that have steered a country's economy in the right direction amid the global crisis, according to a monthly magazine.
In its October issue published Tuesday, Global Finance Magazine said that Lee topped the list of the annual central banker report, receiving grade A, along with the heads of the central banks of five countries plus European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet. The five are the Czech Republic, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Israel.
"South Korea was among the worst hit by the global economic slowdown, with the Korean won depreciating up to 43 percent against the dollar, and exports falling by 34 percent year-on-year," the magazine said.
"Governor Lee has worked hard and swiftly to restore stability to the banking and foreign exchange markets, instituting a range of measures such as expanding the provision of liquidity via open market operations and lending facilities as well as providing foreign currency liquidity to domestic financial firms," it added.
It pointed out that so far, the liquidity provisions appear to be working, with the foreign exchange markets showing signs of improvement and the local currency rebounding.
His counterparts Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve, Mervyn King of the Bank of England and Masaaki Shirakawa of the Bank of Japan got C, B and B minus, respectively.
The magazine's generous grading on Lee might come as a surprise to Korean government officials and some critics here who have criticized the BOK for belatedly taking action to cope with the global crisis.
They claimed that the BOK should be at least partly accountable for the collapse of the local currency and financial market following the Lehman bankruptcy, as it did not take preemptive measures in a timely manner.
The magazine grades central bank governors of 30 key countries on an A to F scale for success in areas such as inflation control, goals for economic growth, currency stability and management of interest rates.
The magazine said that it tried to assess the determination of central bankers to stand up to political interference and their efforts at forcing their governments to spend less, and to open their economies to foreign investment and financial services.
"This year, special emphasis was given to each central banker's performance in navigating his or her country through the worst financial crisis since the '30s," Global Finance publisher Joseph Giarraputo said.